Just back from a wonderful two nights in Montréal where the wash of history, art, and commerce never ceases to reinvigorate my satisfaction with Canada. Of course, coming from a Vermonter, that might not sound so special: what expectations of culture can one hold for the least significant state in the Union? Quips aside, Montréal is a vibrant city on the rebound. Buildings going up everywhere, renewal in the old port section since the nuns started selling off bits of real estate, McGill, UQAM and Concordia attracting young talent across disciplines, the museums awash in cash … the reasons are many!

We opted to try out the Hotel Godin over the Hotel Gault, where we have stayed in the past, and overall were disappointed at the price-to-attention-to-detail ratio, but couldn’t have been happier with the location (around the corner from the Quartier Latin and just up the road from the McCord Museum) and the folks who work there. I don’t have tons of time to write just now, so here are some MM highlights:

• Charles Gagnon at the MCM
• Henry Saxe at the MCM
• Jon Todd had some compelling collage work at Saint Dizier
• Gary Taxali had some cool decks at Galerie Saint Dizier
• Joan Dumouchel had some interesting figurative work at Galerie Saint Dizier
• Dominic Besner showing dynamic, scarred works also at Saint Dizier
• Hamilton Aguiar had a few glowing and austere works on wood at Yves Laroche Galerie

And of course there are the current works on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art – more about those after I’ve slept a little more